Travellar
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Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2017 4:31 pm

Beetles defoliating my apple trees!

Sometime yesterday, we got an invasion of beetles. Trees were clean in the morning, but by evening they had begun heavily defoliating 3 or four of the 5 apple trees, and a few were even taking up the plum tree. Plenty of them in the fescue (hay farm, didn't get harvested yet this year) Worst part is, I won't really be able to address this issue until Friday. At the rate they're going, trees will be pretty well stripped clean by then.

Q1) Should I expect my trees to recover, and brush this off like all the other stuff they've been through?

Q2) Payday isn't till Friday, Are there any reccommended household remidies I ought to be trying?

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

Could you just blast them off with jets of water from the garden hose for starters? — you could just stomp on the ones that fall to the ground, though many may fly off (and come back later). Key is to interrupt them and not let them continue what they are doing.

You might want to describe/take pictures of the beetles. Are they Japanese beetles?

Just in case — My plum tree gets infested by aphids and then ladybugs/beetles follow to enjoy the smorgasbord, looking like they are all over the tree — but the aphids are camouflaged and tiny whereas ladybugs are orange and black and clearly visible.

Travellar
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Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2017 4:31 pm

Can't post pics right now, but these beetles are much larger than ladybugs/Japaneese Beetles. I'd say about 3/4 inch long, green and brown.

Trees are too far from the house for a hose, and ground around the trees is not well trimmed, so no effective stomping.

As of last night, it doesn't look like the defoliation had progressed much past day one, so there's some merit to the aphid theory.
Last night we sprayed the trees with bug repellant, which had the beetles scrambling to get out of there. That'll be a temporary solution, I guess. Hopefully I haven't done more harm than good. I suppose Aphids wouldn't stick around either.

Travellar
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Posts: 39
Joined: Mon Sep 18, 2017 4:31 pm

Update:
There was quite a bit of defoliation the first day, but none since. (or at least very little) So either the beetles ate all the aphids and just needed encouragement to move on, or the beetles were doing the eating, and needed encouragement to go elsewhere.

At any rate, althogh the amount of leaf loss in a day was alarming, it looks like my trees will be just fine.



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